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Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Microsatellites: Tom and Jerry

To image distant stars and planets with increasingly greater precision, you need a baseline array of two or more satellites looking from slightly different angles (a massive oversimplification, but stay with me here, I admit to not being a space engineer). The point is that it's very difficult to get satellites into the right formation and hold it without impractical quantities of fuel. A US/South Korean project is testing it with two CubeSats, one 2u (two unit, 20cm x 10cm x 10 cm), and a 1U (10x10x10 cm) for less than $1M. Aviation Weeks's overview (may require free registration) is here, and the launch provider (India) posts its manifest here. NASA's article is here. It's amazing stuff for a tiny spacecraft costing less than a lot of U.S. houses!